JenDupre

I have this EXACT laptop that I paid a grand for new at Best Buy. Same specs all around. Aside from the touchpad wanting to occasionally increase the size of my zoom on web browsing, (my hand is rubbing it some weird way)it's a great machine. Once of the best feeling keyboards I've ever had, and the touchscreen is a nice addition even though I don't use it a lot. The screen is pretty reflective, heads up on that. 99% of the time it's just fine, but I am thinking about getting something to cut the occasional glare. My Alienwares did the same thing, so I'm used to it.
Solid machine, nice and quiet, and you can choose what programs to run the high end card with (to save battery life).

And the metal casing is great! I'll never go back to plastic, both left hinges broke on my alienwares.

Grade A products will have overall excellent to very good cosmetic condition. Some Grade A units will be cosmetically pristine while others may have light scratches or other minor blemishes. Some Laptops may exhibit some shiny areas around the keyboard (space bar, touchpad and/or touchpad buttons), but the keyboard will be in excellent condition. Cosmetic blemishes will have no impact to the system's overall functionality or performance.

Cosmetic Grade B

These units will have some cosmetic blemishes that include scratches and/or other surface imperfections. Some Laptops may exhibit shiny keys on the keyboard and/or shiny surfaces around the keyboard. All key characters will be legible. Grade B products are functionally equivalent to Grade A, and will include the same warranty and customer support as Grade A products. Pricing on grade B products will typically be lower than grade A products.

Roboram

JenDupre wrote:I have this EXACT laptop that I paid a grand for new at Best Buy. Same specs all around. Aside from the touchpad wanting to occasionally increase the size of my zoom on web browsing, it's a great machine. Once of the best feeling keyboards I've ever had, and the touchscreen is a nice addition even though I don't use it a lot. The screen is pretty reflective, heads up on that. 99% of the time it's just fine, but I am thinking about getting something to cut the occasional glare. My Alienwares did the same thing, so I'm used to it.
Solid machine, nice and quiet, and you can choose what programs to run the high end card with (to save battery life).

I work for BBY and paid $999 when bought this laptop two months ago. Easily the best purchase I've ever made. You can't forget to mention the Bang & Olufsen audio. While it may not match up to a dedicated speaker role, for portability sake, nothing comes close to its sound quality.

phlypp

[quote postid="5752506" user="kr580"]That's for a B Grade refurb. They have a better condition version for $780. Not sure what Woot's conditions are.

I'd grown to expect 'refurbished' products meant just a marketing term to allow the sale of new equipment through non-prime vendors, or cracking the box to add a critical update before shipping. I'm now getting equipment that's actually been used.

kr580

phlypp wrote:I'd grown to expect 'refurbished' products meant just a marketing term to allow the sale of new equipment through non-prime vendors, or cracking the box to add a critical update before shipping. I'm now getting equipment that's actually been used.

I got the i5 version of this from BuyDig and it was definitely (poorly) refurbished. Dent in the cover, no keyboard backlight, non-clicky right-click and the ASUS logo on the cover was half yellow. And apparently they were coming from ASUS directly to BuyDig.

sdc100

It seems like a decent laptop that can act like a desktop replacement. It even has dedicated video memory, unlike the shared memory of most laptops. Only two things prevent it from being a true desktop replacement. First, the HD is 5400rpm. 7200rpm is preferable for desktops. The tradeoff is heat and energy usage which explains why most laptops use 5400rpm. The lower speed is more than adequate for most applications. I would have also liked the drive to read Blu-Rays (and even write them).

The second flaw, however, is inexplicable. The 4th generation i7-4500U CPU is shockingly slow with a Passmark of only 3873! That score is equal to some 3rd generation i3s. For comparison, I have a $459 17.3" [non-touchscreen] Toshiba with a 3rd Gen i7-3630QM that scores a Passmark 7732. That's twice the Passmark of this newer processor. For what it's worth, Woot had the same Toshiba for $499.

I do a lot of video editing so hard drive and CPU speeds make a big difference. But most people should be fine with this slow CPU. I'm just shocked that such an expensive laptop (previous posts say that it was sold for $999) has such a low Passmark score. On the plus side, it increases battery life, which is good for mobile users. But that mobility is hampered by its 6lb weight. This is surprisingly heavy for a 15.4" laptop. My 17.3" Toshiba is only a bit heavier at 6.6 lbs, and it has a lot of metal.

sdc100

Roboram wrote:I work for BBY and paid $999 when bought this laptop two months ago. Easily the best purchase I've ever made. You can't forget to mention the Bang & Olufsen audio. While it may not match up to a dedicated speaker role, for portability sake, nothing comes close to its sound quality.

Don't know about that. The Harmon-Kardon speakers on my $459 Toshiba P875-S7102 sound pretty damn good. It easily fills my room with no distortion and very good bass. And it doesn't even claim to have a subwoofer like many HPs do. Sound imaging is excellent, especially when you use 3D DSP effects. In fact, I rarely use the huge Bluetooth speakers I bought. Plus it has twice the Passmark score of this Asus at $240 less.

sdc100

So this Woot deal isn't a screamer, and honestly, Newegg is a bit more flexible with returns, so as much as I love the specs on this machine, I'm gonna have to pass.

The NewEgg deal is actually cheaper if you live in a state where Woot/Amazon collects sales tax. That includes us NYers. I still don't quite understand why Woot is compelled to collect sales tax while NewEgg isn't, when neither has a presence in NY. Seems very unfair to Woot, and it certainly makes a difference to shoppers like me. From what little I understand, Amazon/Woot is voluntarily collecting this tax in anticipation of the day when every online vendor will be doing the same. And that day is just around the corner.

mhenson2

groovieknave

sdc100 wrote:It seems like a decent laptop that can act like a desktop replacement. It even has dedicated video memory, unlike the shared memory of most laptops. Only two things prevent it from being a true desktop replacement. First, the HD is 5400rpm. 7200rpm is preferable for desktops. The tradeoff is heat and energy usage which explains why most laptops use 5400rpm. The lower speed is more than adequate for most applications. I would have also liked the drive to read Blu-Rays (and even write them).

The second flaw, however, is inexplicable. The 4th generation i7-4500U CPU is shockingly slow with a Passmark of only 3873! That score is equal to some 3rd generation i3s. For comparison, I have a $459 17.3" [non-touchscreen] Toshiba with a 3rd Gen i7-3630QM that scores a Passmark 7732. That's twice the Passmark of this newer processor. For what it's worth, Woot had the same Toshiba for $499.

I do a lot of video editing so hard drive and CPU speeds make a big difference. But most people should be fine with this slow CPU. I'm just shocked that such an expensive laptop (previous posts say that it was sold for $999) has such a low Passmark score. On the plus side, it increases battery life, which is good for mobile users. But that mobility is hampered by its 6lb weight. This is surprisingly heavy for a 15.4" laptop. My 17.3" Toshiba is only a bit heavier at 6.6 lbs, and it has a lot of metal.

Wow, thanks for that info... i almost wasted my money on this. That score is the same as my first gen i7... wayyy to expensive. Staying away from this cpu.

jacocor

Bought this a little over a month ago and love it. Good battery life, nice backlit keyboard.Wish the keys on the keyboard were a different color than silver. Makes it hard to see the letters/numbers considering my typing sucks. Listen to Pandora on it and nice sound, the little sub woofer is nice but bothersome to pack along as I travel.

gak0090

sdc100 wrote:It seems like a decent laptop that can act like a desktop replacement. It even has dedicated video memory, unlike the shared memory of most laptops. Only two things prevent it from being a true desktop replacement. First, the HD is 5400rpm. 7200rpm is preferable for desktops. The tradeoff is heat and energy usage which explains why most laptops use 5400rpm. The lower speed is more than adequate for most applications. I would have also liked the drive to read Blu-Rays (and even write them).

The second flaw, however, is inexplicable. The 4th generation i7-4500U CPU is shockingly slow with a Passmark of only 3873! That score is equal to some 3rd generation i3s. For comparison, I have a $459 17.3" [non-touchscreen] Toshiba with a 3rd Gen i7-3630QM that scores a Passmark 7732. That's twice the Passmark of this newer processor. For what it's worth, Woot had the same Toshiba for $499.

I do a lot of video editing so hard drive and CPU speeds make a big difference. But most people should be fine with this slow CPU. I'm just shocked that such an expensive laptop (previous posts say that it was sold for $999) has such a low Passmark score. On the plus side, it increases battery life, which is good for mobile users. But that mobility is hampered by its 6lb weight. This is surprisingly heavy for a 15.4" laptop. My 17.3" Toshiba is only a bit heavier at 6.6 lbs, and it has a lot of metal.

I do agree with you on most points. But to be fair (not that I would purchase this)- the I7 achieves the 3873 passmark using a cpu that has a max tdp of 15 watts your I7 has a max tdp of 45 watts- so you might have twice the benchmark, but it's costing you 3 x the power to achieve it.

This is kind of an odd setup- it seems like they are using a low power I7 to compensate for the increased power (25-30 watts) use coming off of the gt-745m. This will probably do pretty decent gaming (not hardcore) since the G3D mark is 1212. The first thing I would recommend is switching out the HD for an SSD- for about $120 you can find a 240 gb SSD- this will by far have the most impact on performance. The price on this is a bit high, but if you are a gamer and the GT-745m is good enough, it's 1920x1080, it's a decent price for a discount gaming rig.

azs

sdc100 wrote:The NewEgg deal is actually cheaper if you live in a state where Woot/Amazon collects sales tax. That includes us NYers. I still don't quite understand why Woot is compelled to collect sales tax while NewEgg isn't, when neither has a presence in NY. Seems very unfair to Woot, and it certainly makes a difference to shoppers like me. From what little I understand, Amazon/Woot is voluntarily collecting this tax in anticipation of the day when every online vendor will be doing the same. And that day is just around the corner.

Amazon is required to collect tax anywhere they have a physical presence, such as an office, a call center or a distribution center. Since Amazon is growing like kudzu, they have a presence in a lot of places.
Alternately, NewEgg probably just has a single office and distribution center, and they're probably near each other.

ThunderThighs

This Asus laptop is Factory Reconditioned. Other than New, there is no higher quality than Factory Reconditioned.

A “factory reconditioned” item was returned, inspected, and restored to fully working condition by the original manufacturer or a certified partner. And the original manufacturer stands behind it with a warranty. It’s as close to new as you can get without technically being “new”.

mandklewis

ThunderThighs wrote:This Asus laptop is Factory Reconditioned. Other than New, there is no higher quality than Factory Reconditioned.

A “factory reconditioned” item was returned, inspected, and restored to fully working condition by the original manufacturer or a certified partner. And the original manufacturer stands behind it with a warranty. It’s as close to new as you can get without technically being “new”.

does that mean that once the purchase is made woot has nothing to do with it even if a part is doa?

ThunderThighs

mandklewis wrote:does that mean that once the purchase is made woot has nothing to do with it even if a part is doa?

We have a 21-day return policy for damaged or defective items. Contact support@woot.com in that period and CS will assist you. After that time, you will be working with the warranty holder for service.

TheCowStir

I bought this one of the last times this laptop was sold on Woot (December).

I love it, it is an all metal case, the graphics processor is nice to allow me to play all the games I have tried.

To change the hard drive, ram, battery, or CD drive you need a Torx5 bit and have to take the bottom cover off the laptop.

I just recently replace the DVD drive with a Blu-ray drive and it works great (FYI the drive in this is a 9.5mm, the older larger drives will not fit).

The laptop also has an internal SSD mSATA port, however it does not seem to be very usable as standard 50mm drives don't fit (like the Samsung evo 840), you need a 30mm drive. You can of course replace the 2.5" sata drive just like any other laptop.

I have had some times that the touch screen will not respond after suspending and resuming (closing the lid) after being on for days. Restarting has always resolved the issue.

A few pieces of the keyboard that I don't like... the Insert key is combined with the delete key so I can't easily use vmware and ctrl-alt-insert (must use the software buttons).

On my laptop the plastic cover that they use to cover the serial numbers doesn't stick anymore because they peeled it up so they could mark it as refurbished.

I would recommend this laptop to anyone who wants a powerful large laptop. The back lit keyboard is great.

gak0090

TheCowStir wrote:I bought this one of the last times this laptop was sold on Woot (December).

I love it, it is an all metal case, the graphics processor is nice to allow me to play all the games I have tried.

To change the hard drive, ram, battery, or CD drive you need a Torx5 bit and have to take the bottom cover off the laptop.

I just recently replace the DVD drive with a Blu-ray drive and it works great (FYI the drive in this is a 9.5mm, the older larger drives will not fit).

The laptop also has an internal SSD mSATA port, however it does not seem to be very usable as standard 50mm drives don't fit (like the Samsung evo 840), you need a 30mm drive. You can of course replace the 2.5" sata drive just like any other laptop.

I have had some times that the touch screen will not respond after suspending and resuming (closing the lid) after being on for days. Restarting has always resolved the issue.

A few pieces of the keyboard that I don't like... the Insert key is combined with the delete key so I can't easily use vmware and ctrl-alt-insert (must use the software buttons).

On my laptop the plastic cover that they use to cover the serial numbers doesn't stick anymore because they peeled it up so they could mark it as refurbished.

I would recommend this laptop to anyone who wants a powerful large laptop. The back lit keyboard is great.

This is a great post. It sucks replacing a 9.5mm Blu-ray drive though. They are more expensive and not nearly as many to choose from.

sdc100

joymonkey wrote:The Staples one is also not an IPS panel. from what I can tell it's a TFT screen with LED backlight.

But realistically, would one really benefit from IPS technology in a 15.6" laptop screen? In general, you'd be staring at it head on so extra-wide viewing angles are useless. It's unlikely that such a small screen would be used for group viewing of movies. In such cases, you'd probably use the HDMI output. In terms of brightness, a normal TFT screen is more than adequate for indoor viewing. Outdoor computing is normally done on a tablet or smartphone these days.

sdc100

gak0090 wrote:This is a great post. It sucks replacing a 9.5mm Blu-ray drive though. They are more expensive and not nearly as many to choose from.

I considered replacing the DVD drive on my 17.3" Toshiba but decided that I simply don't play enough Blu-rays. Most of the movies I watch are in video files, which I store on a USB drive. I did opt for an external Blue-ray writer though for backing up files. You can find them for about $79.

sdc100

ThunderThighs wrote:This Asus laptop is Factory Reconditioned. Other than New, there is no higher quality than Factory Reconditioned.

A “factory reconditioned” item was returned, inspected, and restored to fully working condition by the original manufacturer or a certified partner. And the original manufacturer stands behind it with a warranty. It’s as close to new as you can get without technically being “new”.

For what it's worth, EVERY Windows desktop and laptop, and Android tablet I've ever owned was refurbished or even used. Never had a problem and I've saved tons of money. At worst, there were minor blemishes on the case but even that is rare. As for Woot, I buy lots of refurbed stuff from them and problems are rare. But when problems did exist, they handled it efficiently.

gak0090

sdc100 wrote:I considered replacing the DVD drive on my 17.3" Toshiba but decided that I simply don't play enough Blu-rays. Most of the movies I watch are in video files, which I store on a USB drive. I did opt for an external Blue-ray writer though for backing up files. You can find them for about $79.

That's what I replaced my drive on- I was pimping out my Toshiba P75-A7200 that I got from woot. Added an SSD, increased RAM to 16 gb and I wanted to add a blu-ray burner to make burn movies of the kids & such in high def. I do have an external also- I just wanted to have this laptop complete. When I discovered they had a 9.5mm optical drive in there i was floored. I could see putting this into a small form factor laptop, but this is a 17.3" laptop. It was then I realized that the uj-262 from panasonic was the best deal I could get and it was still $120 on ebay, the 12.5 mm you can find for like half the price.

sdc100

azs wrote:Amazon is required to collect tax anywhere they have a physical presence, such as an office, a call center or a distribution center. Since Amazon is growing like kudzu, they have a presence in a lot of places.
Alternately, NewEgg probably just has a single office and distribution center, and they're probably near each other.

That's not applicable since Amazon has no presence of any kind in New York. No warehouse, depot, distribution center, etc. This was clearly established in their legal battle against New York State. In fact, much of Amazon's argument was based on the Quill case, which established the physical presence criterion. Quill prevailed. In the end, however, Amazon gave up the fight. They know that it's a losing battle as more and more states enact "The Amazon Tax." So instead of risking a VERY messy retroactive payment of taxes NYS claims Amazon owes, Amazon decided to just go forward and collect sales tax in certain states.

sdc100

gak0090 wrote:I do agree with you on most points. But to be fair (not that I would purchase this)- the I7 achieves the 3873 passmark using a cpu that has a max tdp of 15 watts your I7 has a max tdp of 45 watts- so you might have twice the benchmark, but it's costing you 3 x the power to achieve it.

This is kind of an odd setup- it seems like they are using a low power I7 to compensate for the increased power (25-30 watts) use coming off of the gt-745m. This will probably do pretty decent gaming (not hardcore) since the G3D mark is 1212. The first thing I would recommend is switching out the HD for an SSD- for about $120 you can find a 240 gb SSD- this will by far have the most impact on performance. The price on this is a bit high, but if you are a gamer and the GT-745m is good enough, it's 1920x1080, it's a decent price for a discount gaming rig.

Well, I fully acknowledged that this uses an ultra-low voltage CPU which increases battery life. But the fact is, most people use their laptops as plugged-in compact desktops. Even mobile users like students often find a place to plug their laptops during use. And the rather hefty 6lb weight makes this a poor choice for the truly mobile user. No matter how you look at it, the wimpy CPU seems like a poor match for the other components and laptop's price.

transfigure

sdc100 wrote:But realistically, would one really benefit from IPS technology in a 15.6" laptop screen? In general, you'd be staring at it head on so extra-wide viewing angles are useless.

I find that TN panels in laptops always exhibit large color and luminosity variations. The reason is that laptops are typically viewed up close, which effectively increases the viewing angle as you look at different parts of the screen, particularly with a larger screen like this (though my wife's 10-inch Lenovo is awful). If you're using it on your desk, you might not notice it as much. But if you're using it on your lap, you may very well notice the color and luminosity shifts. I consider an IPS panel a huge plus.

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